NEXT MAN UP: One of the keys to victory this week is life without playmaker Deebo Samuel, (seen in center), who was injured in last week's loss to Kentucky. ((AP Photo/Sean Rayford, File)

South Carolina will host Louisiana Tech on Saturday afternoon with kickoff set for 3:30 PM. The game will be televised nationally by the SEC Network and this article takes a look at what the Gamecocks must do well to ensure victory.

South Carolina will host Louisiana Tech on Saturday afternoon with kickoff set for 3:30 PM. The game will be televised nationally by the SEC Network and this article takes a look at what the Gamecocks must do well to ensure victory.

Auburn released its 2018 football schedule Tuesday and it includes one neutral-site game. Auburn will also play 7 games at Jordan-Hare Stadium, and of course standing out is the Nov. 24 Iron Bowl meeting with Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

Auburn released its 2018 football schedule Tuesday and it includes one neutral-site game. Auburn will also play 7 games at Jordan-Hare Stadium, and of course standing out is the Nov. 24 Iron Bowl meeting with Alabama in Tuscaloosa.

(RNN) – The problem with most football fans is they only follow the game as far as what they can see. Watch the ball, see the touchdown, yell at the TV during a turnover and then make small talk with your buddies until the cycle begins again.

What they don't realize is the small details right before and right after the snap will pretty much tell you the outcome of the play before it ends.

The problem with many sportswriters is they do the same thing. Report the score, report the stats and then hype some quarterback as the next Heisman favorite.

What they don't realize is that by the time that quarterback figures out how to read a blind-side blitz, other teams will have adjusted, and their hero will barely look like a walk-on for the last four games of the season. Bye bye, Heisman.

Every week, Hot Reads will take you a little deeper than what you see on your high-def TV, and we'll have fun doing it.

With that said, let's get down to business, shall we?

Eeeny, meeny, miney … throw

While the rest of the SEC is playing football to start the season, the Florida Gators have chosen an alternative way to entertain their fans.

Coach Will Muschamp, still undecided on whether to start Jacoby Brissett or Jeff Driskel at quarterback, announced the audition between the sophomores will continue for the first two quarters of the opener against Bowling Green.

One will play the first quarter; the other will play the second quarter. The winner gets to lead the preseason No. 23-ranked team to an expected win in the second half, and the loser gets lovely consolation prizes – a clipboard and mop-up duty in any future blowouts.

But hold on, let's back the cupcake wagon up for a minute. A closer look at Bowling Green shows this might not be the best game to attempt this experiment.

Coach Dave Clawson has redshirted everything but the ball boys the past two years, and Bowling Green will put 20 returning starters on the field. Yes, you read that right – 20. The amount of individual production that is coming back is staggering, even if those numbers came during a five-win 2011 season against soft competition.

Experience and confidence in any opponent are lethal, especially in the first game of the season for a rebuilding Florida team that has not been elite since Tim Tebow's departure three years ago.

To be fair, the Gators' defense is so strong they could probably beat the Falcons without a quarterback on the field, and Bowling Green hasn't defeated a Top 25 opponent since 2008.

Frazier's baptism by fire – not as hot as you think

Welcome to the big leagues, Kiehl Frazier. If you can keep the car between the lines, driving as a starting quarterback for Auburn won't be an overly difficult task.

Why, do you ask? Well, let's take a look-see.

First, there's Clemson. This is a perfect example of why there should be a constitutional amendment banning preseason rankings. The Tigers from South Carolina will enter the season as the No. 14 team in both the AP Poll and USA Today Coaches' Poll.

Umm, I'm sorry, but no. Clemson lost three defensive line starters from a 2011 defense that was far from dominant, even before West Virginia won the Orange Bowl track meet.

The offense is great. It would be better if All-American sophomore Sammy Watkins weren't sitting out the first two games for drug-related offenses.

Get past Clemson and very winnable games against Mississippi State and Louisiana-Monroe, take your whipping against LSU, then you might beat Arkansas and cruise until you meet Georgia and Alabama.

What do you mean, "What about Georgia and Alabama?" Stop asking all these questions and listen. This is no time to lose focus. The fate of the world rests on your shoulders!

Whoops, wrong speech. Moving on…

SEC vs. SEC

South Carolina travels to Vanderbilt on Thursday night in the only all-league matchup in the opening week of play, and you can smell the anxiety halfway across the country.

Show of hands, who really thinks Vandy can win this game? David Price, you are not allowed to vote, so please put your hand down. You either, Jay Cutler. Not even your ego – uhhh, I mean arm – could help this team this year.

So what could help the Commodores? History.

While the Commodores will almost certainly finish somewhere in the .500 range – likely below that – they seem to be on this weird cycle of seasons when they perform well in the first handful of games before falling off the table.

After going to a bowl last year, this is probably the last good season in the cycle until, say, about 2019.

Vanderbilt has made it very clear that at this point South Carolina is the most important game of the season. After that, Vanderbilt has Northwestern and St. Paul's School for Unruly Girls.

Well, actually, it's Presbyterian, but really, what's the difference? The point is, flying the "Victory Flag" after the first three games this season is not out of the question.

A starting quarterback who is the brother of a Super Bowl MVP, All-SEC running back Zac Stacy and eight starters returning for a defense that ranked No. 18 in the nation last season all bode well for Vandy.

While the Gamecocks have a wonderful combination of talent, coaching and popularity, they have not totally convinced people they can handle the pressure of high expectations – maybe not even themselves.

Cheerleader suicides

On a far more serious note, Hot Reads has been on suicide watch since a federal court ruled in early August that cheerleading does not qualify as an intercollegiate athletic competition.

This groundbreaking news casts doubt on both the motivation and sanity of cheerleaders all over the SEC. Especially the guys, who are probably thinking, "I gave up weightlifting for this?"

Of course, everyone has their own opinions, especially the mothers of cheerleaders. I would know because I've written enough columns on the subject and have probably heard from every cheer mom in the eastern half of the United States.

The opinion of Hot Reads is simply this: Anything that attracts dirty old men is never a good thing.

Aside from that, cheer, don't cheer, cut the cheerleading programs completely, or do whatever else you want. It really doesn't matter one way or the other.

Just keep in mind that probably nowhere else in the country do cheerleaders consider themselves integral parts of the athletic program more than SEC Country. So when you hear about protests outside athletic facilities and illegally obtained mood-altering drugs passing around entire squads, remember you heard it here first.

This Week's Unique Stat

4-0: Kentucky has played its last four season openers on the road and won all of them. Two of those wins were against Louisville, the Wildcats' opponent Sunday. In the long run this projects to be a much better season for Louisville, but the odds favor UK for at least the next four days.

WIS is launching a new sports talk show on Facebook Live! Every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Rick Henry, Emery Glover and their special guests will get together at 1801 Grille in downtown Columbia for thirty minutes of spirited college football talk on Facebook Live.

WIS is launching a new sports talk show on Facebook Live! Every Wednesday at 7:30 p.m., Rick Henry, Emery Glover and their special guests will get together at 1801 Grille in downtown Columbia for thirty minutes of spirited college football talk on Facebook Live.

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Freddie Swain caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Luke Del Rio with 43 seconds remaining to cap No. 20 Florida's rally from a 13-point, fourth-quarter deficit that beat Kentucky 28-27 on Saturday night. The Gators extended their winning streak over the Wildcats to 31 games, the nation's longest streak in FBS, and took early control of the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division. And it required everything they had after t...More >>

LEXINGTON, Ky. (AP) - Freddie Swain caught a 5-yard touchdown pass from backup quarterback Luke Del Rio with 43 seconds remaining to cap No. 20 Florida's rally from a 13-point, fourth-quarter deficit that beat Kentucky 28-27 on Saturday night. The Gators extended their winning streak over the Wildcats to 31 games, the nation's longest streak in FBS, and took early control of the Southeastern Conference's Eastern Division. And it required everything they had after t...More >>